Tricky Trichnosis

Psst, do you know why Bubble Yum bubble gum is so soft? Well, you see the scientists who invented it came up with a secret ingredient that would keep it from getting hard: Spider eggs!

Who doesn’t love a good urban legend? Especially if its food-related. Pork is one of those foods for which religious and dietary prohibitions, deliciousness, and myth have collided to produce a plethora of rumors, ranging from the cast of Green Acres eating Arnold the pig at their wrap party to the old saw that pouring Coca Cola on a slab of raw pork causes worms to wriggle their way out of the meat.

Behold the power of the Internet. Not only can universal connectivity cause tantalizing gossip to spread around the world faster than any schoolyard whispering campaign ever did, now would-be urban-legenders (and their debunkers) can make videos in support of their theses.

Recently, a completely disgusting 50-second video surfaced in which the filmmaker was shown pouring a refreshing bottle of Coke atop a quiveringly raw slab o’ pork. Worms did indeed surface.

But is it really true? Let’s see what the truth-seekers at Snopes have to say:

The less-than-fantastic reality is that pork products made from domestically raised animals and sold on the consumer market are pretty reliably free of worms, and pouring Coca-Cola over a slab of pork won’t get you much other than perhaps a nicely marinated piece of meat.